MENA Content Marketing Survey 2016

It’s no secret that the MENA region is one of the largest consumers of online content. With the rapid increase in mobile penetration, this number is only set to grow.

The opportunity is ripe, but are brands and marketers taking advantage of it? Rather, are they prepared to take advantage?

Connate conducted a survey to understand the content marketing landscape here in the MENA region. So if you thinking of content marketing for your brand or aren’t sure if you should. Read on!

From all responses what is clear is that content marketing is something that is very much on every marketers and business owners mind. With 82% of them having it on their coming year’s marketing agenda.

Almost all respondents also consider original content as an important part of the marketing strategy. This is evidenced by the fact that 79% are already using content in some form or the other.

Most commonly produced forms of content are Social Media content followed by Videos, Blog Posts and Email.

Facebook and YouTube (71%) are the channels that brands are the most active on followed by Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.

As a norm 71% of the respondents use their own in-house teams to create the content.

Even though majority of the brands are interested or are using content, what’s surprising is that 71% feel that the content being curated or produced does not help them meet their marketing objectives and KPIs.

Also notable is the fact that that respondents feel that the lack of skilled resources, being unsure of the ROI and the sheer amount of time content creation takes were some of the biggest challenges brands and marketers alike face.

Finally, 2016 looks optimistic for MENA with nearly 59% seeing the value in content marketing and feel that it does add value to their customers.

In 2015 we saw content marketing in its infancy, growing as a tactic being adopted by brands. There were some hits, some misses.

In 2016 we see content marketing coming into its own with firm strategies in place for brands to reap benefits through content experiences that forge stronger ties with their target audiences rather than just selling an idea.